It was supposed to be a family vacation. For all of us the timing was just right: I was start my job in 3-weeks, Kian had a 10-day break from daycare, and Annie was still looking for work but should have been able to do this from the road. With one exception: interview.
So I had to go it alone. My amazing friend Bryn fixed up my RV with just a pair of pliers and blow torch and so I loaded up the RV and set sail on Monday with a couple paying passengers who'm it connected with on Craigslist. Christopher and I hit it off, a good thing because he and his little Chihuahua pooch hung out with me for two-nights. I left him in Santa Rosa to make his own way into the Bay Area while I took my bike out of the bathroom and hit the roads under 85 and sunny skies. Awesome, that first day was one of the best rides of my entire trip: Kings Ridge. An 85 mile epic on steep, beautiful, narrow roads that took me out to the coastline and then back up through the Spring-lush rolling hills.
Next day my legs were knackered so I eased around San Francisco hitting all the sites and cool spots, once again under sunny skies and over 80 degrees. The city was outside after having been beaten by a 2-week storm. I lucked out, finally, and hit the weather just right. 70-miles in 7-hours on the bike: coffee shops, Chinatown quick eats, afternoon beer along Hwy-1, and lots of other stops. That night I drove to Santa Cruz and took out the mountain bike for a sweet 4-hour ride on coastline singletrack, then up into the hills and back via the University. Crazy ride, and all without a shirt on. Felt so good at the time but I would pay for this mistake with a pretty hefty sunburn. Fortunately Bryn was to the rescue.
She and Michael and a large 20-person gang of mostly Seattle cyclists were down in Los Alamos, near Santa Barbara, for a 1-week cycling camp and Bryn was my lotion applicator. The dudes wouldn't touch me. The next 6 days we rode epic after epic, mostly all of them leaving right from the hotel and with much needed warmth and sun.
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